New AgriLife Extension agronomist hired for Rolling Plains
Writer: Kay Ledbetter, 806-677-5608, [email protected]
Contact: Dr. Emi Kimura, 940-552-9941, [email protected]
VERNON – Dr. Emi Kimura has been hired as the new Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service agronomist to serve the Rolling Plains area, and she will office at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center south of Vernon.
Dr. Mark McFarland, AgriLife Extension program leader and Texas A&M University soil and crop sciences associate department head in College Station, said Kimura will begin April 1 as an assistant professor with a dual appointment in the department of ecosystem sciences and management.
“We are excited to have Dr. Kimura join our AgriLife faculty. She will be an outstanding resource for agricultural producers in the Rolling Plains,” McFarland said.
Kimura was raised in Hokkaido, Japan and later moved to Kyoto, Japan, where she finished high school. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Wyoming and doctorate from Washington State University.
She recently completed her postdoctoral work with the Washington State University department of crop and soil sciences. During her graduate and postdoctoral work, she specialized in forages and crop management.
Kimura has helped conduct cultivar trials with cool–season grasses and small grains, and multiple studies on nutrient management, cover crops, specialty crops and germination. She also has worked with switchgrass, potatoes, canola, silage and corn.
Throughout her graduate programs, she spent time doing field day talks, farm visits and Extension workshops and bulletins, all of which she said will be similar to what she expects to do in her new position with AgriLife Extension.
Kimura said she will work to maintain sustainable and profitable agricultural production systems in the Rolling Plains by developing water-efficient cropping systems; conducting cultivar evaluations, including cover crops, grain legumes and current research on sesame, canola and guar; and working with forage systems, including summer-dormant tall fescue and stockpiled forage.
Other areas of importance, she said, will be continued work with wheat in the role of a dual-purpose crop, and brush and weed control on grazing lands.